THE People’s National Congress (PNC) is facing a serious crisis, and is battling to survive the changing political tide that is taking place in Guyana now.
The party, once filled with strength, buoyancy, and spirited activism is now weak, tired and ineffective when one looks at its current political strategies, policies, and positions.
Most, if not all, would agree that the PNC is a skeleton of its former self. It is not the party its founding leader, Forbes Burnham created when he split from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in 1957. Burnham must be turning in his grave to see what is happening in the party and outside of Congress Place now.
Also, the veil of being a multiracial party and pursuing coalition politics that it enjoyed hiding behind is gone, leaving its true self exposed and susceptible to political attacks from the body politic in Guyana.

At 66, the party is also busy trying to get a grip of the changing narrative that it is headless and directionless, even though it has a very polarised and uncharismatic leader in the person of Aubrey Norton. He is twiddling his thumbs while the legacy of Burnham and the PNC goes up in flames right before his eyes.
No doubt that there is infighting, chaos and a leadership duel taking place in the party which has exacerbated the crisis to unbelievable proportions, leading to several cliques and circles. There is the circle of those who still support the ideology of David Granger and Joseph Harmon, and there are those who support the ideology of Norton.
Also, there is a sweeping change creeping through the party that the leader should be a person who is futuristic in terms of policy approaches, modern in terms of reforms and changing the old PNC ways that have not worked and undermine the party.

This crisis is causing the party to face serious haemorrhaging as far as membership is concerned. The crossover to the PPP and other forces is also only a symptom of the crisis. The PPP, presumably, has many more important Opposition politicians that will cross the floor to its side when the national polls are held in 2025.
Apart from the resignations, Norton has now placed an ineffective and timid woman to function in the post of the party’s General Secretary; a woman who is seen as a placeholder, and is not learning how to navigate the racist regime of the PNC. She is unable to have any influence on the party and its members, because of the fact that she is seen as a political novice and a newcomer to the PNC. She is not allowed to have a voice, and does much of what she did as a minister in the previous government, only now, signing Norton’s blank cheques.

As this occurs, the PNC is seeking the shelter of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which its leader killed when he took over in 2021. After all, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) and Alliance for Change (AFC) are gone. So, that has pretty much killed the coalition alliance. Everything that was seen as good that Granger passed on, Norton killed, or is killing. Therefore, Norton as leader is deepening the crisis, because he has failed to put new things and policies in place before he removed similar Granger reforms.

This crisis is weighing on the party’s ability to perform at Local Government Elections and effectively stop the intended steal of perceived opposition constituencies and strongholds. It has caused many politicians to have knee-jerk, and half-baked reactions to unfortunate situations in our country. Just look at the cases of Amanza Walton-Desir, Norton and others to see how they are politicising the recent fire at Madhia Secondary School, which the government has already said there will be a Commission of Inquiry.
The crisis has pit Roysdale Forde, Annette Ferguson, Ganesh Mahipal and others against the party leader.

As there is disunity and discord even among the PNC members in the diaspora, the PNC should address the skeleton in the room now rather than later.
It must call an emergency meeting of its Central Executive (CE) Members to get to the bottom of this leadership crisis and vacuum. Norton must be given a period of six months to get his act together and do right by the PNC, or face the embarrassment of public abandonment. He must try hard to merge the leadership styles of Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin, and David Granger into one whole, fusing it with his qualities that are good in order to become president or an effective political leader.

If he refuses the advice or constructive criticism, the leaders should rally the members of the party at Congress to have him removed.
The CE should have a dialogue with the feuding parties in Congress Place in order to get the unity and collectiveness restored. Personalities aside, they should focus on working to get the people genuine representations in the National Assembly and start to hold government accountable both inside and outside the parliament.

It also should restart the conversations with political parties to reignite the flame in APNU and future coalitions or electoral alliances.
While it does that, the sector leaders in Parliament should focus their attention to coming up with counter policies, positions and plans for their sectors and Guyana as a rapidly developing nation.
History is replete with examples of political movements dying because of lack of continuity and leadership crisis like these; do not let this political organism be another such statistic.